watch out for georgia drummy, she is only 12 years of age, and has reached the quarter finals of a tennis europe under 14 in the netherlands, best of luck to georgia! she is on the verge of making the top 100

John Morrissey is in his second year and stanford and is ranked 45 in the college ranking there. Not sure if that is good or not?
Lohan has dropped out of sutton next week but Bowtell is still down for there. Don't know much about Georgia Drummy but I guess she must have some potential if they are sending her away to play tournaments. Has anyone ever been to the tennis center in DCU?

for john morrissey, that would be very good considering he is only in second year, because everyone that is ranked are 1st, 2nd, 3rd or final year students.

i have never being to the tennis centre at DCU

as far as i know, tennis ireland dont fund players to play in tournaments, its up to the families themselves to find the money

our top ranked junior karola bejenaru who trains in belfast has just gotten a sponsorship deal with dominos pizzas ( her father delivers pizzas for them) she is still officially romanian, but i think she has applied for irish citizenship

i was very disappointed with sinead lohan for pulling out of sutton, she is doing her leaving cert, so maybe she has exams

Article rank 28 Feb 2013Belfast TelegraphDavid Kelly
DOMINO EFFECT CAN HELP STARLET SHOOT UP THE WORLD RANKINGS
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KAROLA Bejenaru has received an ideal boost to her bid to move up the International Tennis Federation junior rankings with a sponsorship deal from Dominos Pizza.

Slice of the action: Karola Bejenaru has clinched a new sponsorship deal with Dominos Pizza
The number one Irish junior, 15, is currently ranked 820 in the under-18 ITF rankings but with the extra financial backing the east Belfast teenager, born in Romania, will have the opportunity to enter more events and hopefully climb the world rankings.
Currently, Sport NI do not support any tennis players so the top juniors can only rely on a small amount from the Mary Peters Trust but Bejenaru is hoping that if she can boost her ranking then more funding may come her way.
Dad Leonard, who delivers pizzas for Dominos, is delighted with the deal which applies to tournaments in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. And the Belfast Telegraph played its part in bringing about the sponsorship, having highlighted the efforts of Leonard to enable Karola to fulfill her potential, including at one point holding down two jobs.
That led to one reader offering his support and now Dominos are backing the 15-year-old Orangefield High student, who became the second youngest in history to lift the under-18 title at the Irish Open last
summer.
Since then she has been going through her daily routine of early morning and afternoon training, while at Christmas she won the Irish under-18 indoor title in Dublin and also made the semi-finals of the women’s event — losing a three-hour thriller.
Dad Leonard said: “I am very pleased that Dominos have got behind Karola and helped her.
“Dominos have been very good to me, giving me the time off I need to take Karola to tournaments and after they saw the story about Karola and I in the Belfast Telegraph they had said they would look at helping us. “It’s not easy going to tournaments, paying for flights, hotel and food — one time I slept in the car for a week while Karola slept in the hotel. Last year when we went to Nottingham for two weeks it cost around £3,000.
“When you look at the rankings you see a lot of the players at the top have done many more events,” he explained.
“It is down to cost but this is a big help and I think it is the first time that a player from Northern Ireland has received this kind of sponsorship.
“The plan is to do as many ITFs as we can before May when Karola will have GCSE exams and then after June she can do some more.
“One of the events will be at home because Windsor are going to be hosting an ITF, the first to come to Belfast which will be great.
“Compared to players in Britain and Germany and France we are still way behind, they are given a lot of money by their federations but this is a start and if more people can get behind Karola it would be a big help.”
Karola’s Windsor Tennis Club coach Przemek Stec has set his protege the target of getting into the top 400.
Stec said: “We really appreciate Dominos giving Karola this support. It opens up more opportunities for her and now we want to see her push on towards the top 400 in the ITF.
“Then we can start working towards her competing in the likes of junior Wimbledon and the other Grand Slam junior events. It is very tough to make your way up the rankings when you are based in Northern Ireland. In other countries the federation will give money to the top players but that doesn’t happen here so the costs are massive.

“Karola is working very hard with the rest of the players in our elite squad who are getting ready for Ulster matchplays.”

Thanks for the article. i have never heard of her before, hope she doesn't end up like levova who never converted to ireland and then gave up on the tennis anyway.
Hope Bowtell can kick start her season soon, she's dropped points from last year and slipped back down the rankings. There are so few points to be gained from 10ks that it is going to take an age to move up the ranks unless she starts concentrating on the 25s and up.
I would be really surprised if the players are relying only on their families as it costs thousands to travel around every year. Where did you hear that?
Maybe John Morrissey is our best hope of a pro career if he does well in stanford

Well i have a lot more respect for them that they are funding it out of their own pockets, hard to believe that they don't get any state sponsorship. I wonder if tennis ireland has approached the lta about getting any wild cards for wimbledon for some of the irish players? Or could we lobby someone on twitter, judy murray or someone like that?

Hilda Melander and Sandra Roma (top) beat Amy Bowtell and Lucy Brown to take the Women’s doubles title
Britain’s Lucy Brown and Irish partner Amy Bowtell lost 6-0, 6-3 in the women’s doubles final at the Aegon GB Pro-Series in Sunderland today against Swedish duo Hilda Melander and Sandra Roma.

Brown and Bowtell, who made it through to the final by beating Anna Fitzpatrick and Jade Windley 2-6, 6-3 [10-2], failed to go one step further and take the title as the Swede’s won in emphatic style.

Melander and Roma dominated the first set and didn’t loose a game as neither of their opponents able to find their service rhythm.

The second set was a bit closer, though, with Brown managing to cause problems with her serve.

However, the pair from Sweden had too much and took the tie in straight sets 6-0, 6-3.

After the match, Brown said: “We played really well in our first two matches but today we didn’t seem to find our game very well and it was a bit of a struggle.

“They played really well together and they were really tough to play against.”

The duo from Sweden, who expect their next tournament will be in the US, were understandably pleased with their victory.

“We’re very happy, I think we played very well today,” said Melander.

“I think we played very aggressive and we were the leaders on court. We managed to play the game in the way we wanted.”

Meanwhile, the women’s singles final will be contested between Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck and Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany.

Well i have a lot more respect for them that they are funding it out of their own pockets, hard to believe that they don't get any state sponsorship. I wonder if tennis ireland has approached the lta about getting any wild cards for wimbledon for some of the irish players? Or could we lobby someone on twitter, judy murray or someone like that?

I remember Judy was tweeting years ago against the decision that Niland didn't get a WC, think Andy was too actually. Although McGee and Bowtell don't really justify a WC like Niland did a couple of years back.